Scarlets supremo Simon Easterby pulled no punches about his side’s European plight after being dumped out of the Heineken Cup at the group halfway stage.

Scarlets supremo Simon Easterby pulled no punches about his side’s European plight after being dumped out of the Heineken Cup at the group halfway stage.

While Exeter were celebrating a first historic Heineken Cup victory thanks to a flawless 17-point kicking display from outside-half Gareth Steenson, the Scarlets were reflecting on yet another failed continental campaign.

Easterby’s men find themselves out of Europe before the Christmas turkey has been carved.

And they deserve their status at the rock bottom of Pool Five following poor performances during a hat-trick of defeats.

“We have lost three from three and we probably have not been good enough to win any of those games,” admitted Easterby.

“We can’t hide from that fact.

“There are probably some people who are pleased we have not qualified because their predictions that we would not get through the group have come true.”

Indiscipline cost the Scarlets in the opener in France where they were forced to play against Clermont with 14 men following the first-half red card for Morgan Stoddart. Clermont ran the Scarlets ragged to claim a 49-16 victory and then came a 20-13 home defeat to defending champions Leinster a week later.

This meant the Scarlets needed to win both games against Exeter in the December double-header, especially the first home match in Llanelli. Given this stark scenario, the forlorn first-half performance against the rising English outfit was inexplicable as the hosts produced an abject display to trail 16-6 at the interval.

Exeter set the tone with an opening try from scrum-half Haydn Thomas and the Scarlets were never to overhaul their opponents following the soft score.

It came straight from a scrum with impressive full-back Luke Arscott bouncing off a poor tackle attempt from Wales wing Liam Williams and releasing Thomas under the posts.

Steenson kept the scoreboard ticking for Exeter with a conversion and three penalties, while Rhys Priestland slotted over two kicks in return.

The Scarlets were not aided by early lost lineouts, coming second best in the aerial battle to the imperious Arscott and being penalised at the breakdown.

The home attack was also insipid and lacked an incisive nature despite having Welsh quartet Liam Williams, Scott Williams, Jonathan Davies and Priestland in the backline.

With George North, Rob McCusker and Josh Turnbull already absent, there were further injury setbacks.

Teenage prop Samson Lee was forced off after 10 minutes, Priestland was stretchered off just after half-time and flanker Aaron Shingler limped off with a groin problem on the hour.

The Scarlets improved after the break and forced a dubious penalty try after taking advantage of the sin-binning of Exeter prop Ben Moon following continued Chiefs’ infringements.

There was a frantic finale where the Scarlets were trying to sneak a late win but were not helped by poor decision-making and the baffling decisions of French referee Mathieu Raynal.

But the late efforts proved fruitless as the hosts slipped to a deserved defeat – and Easterby admitted the first-half performance was the primary factor behind another European failure in front of their own fans.

“You can’t give any side the lead that we gave Exeter,” he said.

“We slipped off a couple of tackles and they scored a soft try.

“They scored penalties through our indiscipline and capitalised on some errors in our game.

“We felt as if we created some chances in the first half but we were guilty of poor accuracy.

“They did not look like scoring many tries but we gave them 13 points in the first half.

“They are going to score points but we needed to make them work harder.

“We were much better in the second half and the game was played with a lot more tempo.

“But we were always chasing to get back on level terms because they were able to keep us as at arms length after the start we gave them.

“The first half was poor and we always had an uphill climb after that.”

The Scarlets are now staring down the barrel of a European whitewash similar to the six straight group defeats which effectively cost Phil Davies his job in 2008.

This particular sequel is at Exeter’s Sandy Park on Saturday before a daunting Dublin trip to face Leinster in January with a final visit from Clermont.

Yet there is still Christmas cheer as the Scarlets are currently lying second in the RaboDirect Pro12 ahead of festive fixtures with the Blues, Ospreys and leaders Ulster.

“I can’t explain the difference between the Pro12 and Europe,” said Easterby.

“But we are not going to look too far ahead because we have a game against Exeter to concentrate on first.

“We want to take some of the positives out of the second half performance and build momentum ahead of three huge Pro12 games over the Christmas period.”

Recently Published

The Scarlets consolidated second place in the RaboDirect Pro12 table with a seventh consecutive victory over the hapless Blues, who have won only once in the league in their first season back at their Cardiff Arms Park home.

Previous Articles

It will be the survival of the fittest at the Millennium Stadium tomorrow when Wales and Australia gather their walking wounded together for one last push in this most gruelling year of international rugby.

WalesOnline is part of Media Wales, publisher of the Western Mail, South Wales Echo, Wales on Sunday and the seven Celtic weekly titles, offering you unique access to our audience across Wales online and in print.